Long Beach

April 21, 2013

Takuma Sato, 36, is the first Japanese driver in history to win an IndyCar series race.

Sato, won the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach for the team of legendary racer A.J. Foyt.

This was the team's first victory in more than a decade.

Sato came close to winning his first IndyCar race at last year's Indianapolis 500 but when he tried to pass Dario Franchitti on the final lap he spun out. For the full story click here. 

by Suzanne Joe Kai

In 2010, the Asian American Journalists Association honored Mario Machado inducting him onto its new Honor Roll of Asian American Pioneers in U.S. Journalism (1925-1975) at AAJA's 29th annual National Convention in Los Angeles.

In 1999, Machado was honored by the Chinese Historical Society of America in San Francisco. The CHSA produced this video which has excerpts of some of his early broadcasts.

As fellow pioneer television broadcaster Christopher Chow says about Mario:

"Everybody in our field and in the Asian American community owes him for opening doors for us and for helping us to gain credibility and opportunities.  Not only did he perform well on air but he actively advocated for us, for our inclusion, for the hiring and promoting of Asian Pacific Islander journalists by news media organizations all across America. Mario, we salute you."

Chow wrote about Mario in his "Casting Our Voices" for the Chinese Historical Society's tribute to Chinese American Pioneer Broadcasters:

Tokyo

May 13, 2013 

Haruki Murakami Photo credit: Random House
When Haruki Murakami's latest book became available for pre-order in Japan last month it broke the country's record for pre-orders on Amazon.co.jp within eleven days.

After the first week of the release, Bungeishungu, his publisher in Japan ordered one million copies to be printed. Last month book stores in Japan opened at midnight to greet long lines of customers. Haruki Murakami's latest novel is Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. This is his first new novel since writing best-selling IQ84 three years ago which also received worldwide acclaim. Murakami's books have been translated into 42 languages. Murakami lives near Tokyo and was born in Kyoto in 1949. 

Murakami was a writing fellow at Princeton Univeresity in Princeton, New Jersey, Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

No word yet on when Murakami's latest book will be translated into English, but if you can read Japanese you can check it out here.

Related:

For more articles related to Haruki Murakami's books and life:

Official Random House U.S. site for author Haruki Murakami
Japantimes.co.jp
Amazon.co.jp
Amazon.com author page on Haruki Murakami
Facebook page on author Haruki Murakami managed by Alfred A. Knopf/Vintage Books,
part of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group (Random House)

Update: May 17, 2013

Photo credit: Robert Ellis,
Paul McCartney and Wings on 1975-1976 "Wings Across America" tour. 

We saw ROCKSHOW last night, May 16.

If you are a Paul McCartney fan - this is a must see remastered concert film of his 1975-1976 "Wings Across America" tour with Wings, the band he and his late wife Linda put together back in 1971.

By its 1975-1976 tour Wings was going full throttle.

You can still check the theatrical screening schedule at  http://www.rockshowonscreen.com of this concert film for future dates.

May 9, 2013

Here we are in mid-2013, and Paul McCartney is still as popular as ever selling out entire stadiums around the U.S. on his latest live tour "Out There." 

In our upcoming documentary in development, Like A Rolling Stone: The Life & Times of Ben Fong-Torres, about legendary rock journalist and former senior editor at Rolling Stone magazine, and our resident columnist, we will be including some fascinating never-before-released excerpts of Ben's exclusive interviews with Paul McCartney.

While our documentary about Ben Fong-Torres' fabled life is still in the works, go out and enjoy ROCKSHOW.